For the first time in 12 years, Yayoi Kusama has left the mental health hospital in Japan, where she has been voluntarily residing and channeling illness into art for many years and gone off to London, where her first ever major Tate retrospective opens tomorrow. She says:

“I love Damien Hirst, I respect his work a great deal and I am very happy that the polka dots that I started using [as a young girl] have become a symbol of love and peace around the world with everyone joining hands to use them together in this way.”

Ok, ok, a gracious start. But… but…

“I have done all the work myself, not assistants. That’s why I’m in a wheelchair, I’ve been doing it physically – it’s hard labour – throughout my life.”

Oooooh. Well, maybe just “Ooh.” Or, “Oh.” Really, for someone who used dots as medium to make vibrant work, consciousness-altering mirror rooms and joy — as opposed to glorified house paint samples, oooooh — she could have been a bit harsher.